What If: Hitoshi
by Xejis
Summary: In which Hitoshi's family moves during his first year of middle school and he meets a strange green haired boy who seems to have worse luck than him. From there, everything changes.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia.**

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"You made me cheat on Ryouta didn't you, you freak!"

Hitoshi didn't reply or even bother trying to stop the slap he saw coming. It snapped his head to the side, leaving his right cheek stinging. Tamiko had a hardening quirk allowing her to make her hands feel like a solid rock which, of course, made her slaps all the more painful went she activated it. He supposed he was lucky he didn't lose a few teeth or get a broken jaw.

 _'Then again_ ,' he thought as he cradled his already bruising jaw and tried to stem the blood flow from his nose. ' _She knew that she was in the wrong, so she wouldn't use her full strength on him.'_

The nurse simply tutted when he entered her office. "Honestly Shinsou you should stop using your quirk to tease your classmates."

He didn't bother to contradict her. There was no point when no one believed you even when you told the truth.

He was diagnosed with a brainwashing quirk when he was three in and half years old.

His parents had been worried about the lack of signs of a quirk manifesting and had taken him in for testing. Hitoshi only vaguely remembered the poking and prodding, but he still remembered his discomfort at being forced to go through all of the different tests to find out what type of quirk he had and still didn't like hospitals to this day.

Neither of his parents had a mind control quirk, nor did grandparents on either side of the family. His father had an Echo quirk allowing him to amplify and make his voice echo when he wanted, while his mother could make plants grow. He remembered being so excited that he would get one or a combination of either quirk like his friends did from their own parents. His parents humored him teasing back and forth on what type of quirk he'd get and which one of theirs was better. They were just as shocked as him when the doctor informed them of his actual quirk after three days of testing.

The doctor had explained to them that some quirks were noted as recessive and like any recessive trait it usually didn't show itself unless both parents had the same recessive trait. He handed them a packet designed for parents of children with unusual quirks and suggested they look into their family quirk history.

They found nothing on his mother's side, but after weeks of digging and a lot of strained calls to estranged family members they found a fifth cousin twice removed on his father's side of the family who apparently had a mild mind control ability that hypnotized his victims when they looked him directly in the eye and allowed him to make suggestions of them while they were hypnotized. They were only under his control for three minutes and since his control was weak he couldn't use it on strong-minded people. He vaguely remembered how his parents were ecstatic over finding someone who could help them understand and teach him to control his quirk, but they suddenly dropped it a week later after trying to contact him.

It was only when he was older, that Hitoshi learned that the man was in jail for abusing his quirk and committing robberies and muggings.

He was too young to understand it back then, but now that he was in his first ear of middle school he could pinpoint when things changed within their family because of him.

It was right around the time he started learning how to use his quirk.

Like most children, he stumbled his way through figuring out how to use his quirk, when to use it and why sometimes it wasn't appropriate to use it in certain settings. However, unlike the stories of his father accidentally waking his family and the whole block by mistakenly using his quirk or his mother's stories of overgrowing the plants in her house turning into a jungle that took weeks to clean out, his accidental outbursts weren't as amusing.

He remembered the first time he accidentally used his quirk when he was four to make his mother give him the box of cookies she had been adamantly telling him to wait till after dinner to eat. It was harmless. Just a child throwing a little tantrum and accidentally activating his quirk. However, when his mother snapped out of his control her face had twisted into a look of horror and she had shakily sent him to bed without dinner. He still remembered the look on her face, clearer than any of his other childhood memories. It had only taken a few similar instances to learn that his quirk was not appropriate at any time or place.

That, of course, didn't stop him from announcing his ability to the class when they tried to tease him for being seemingly quirkless.

"That was probably the biggest mistake of my life." He muttered to himself as he trudged home, nurses note in hand.

It took his classmates a little while to fully understand what brainwashing meant, but his teachers understood immediately and reacted with varying degrees of fear and aggression. His current teacher, Nakashima-sensei, refused to talk to him at all even to answer legitimate questions he had.

Once the students understood his ability, they split into two different groups. The first group feared him and refused to talk to him, while the more clever ones started blaming him for their own bad choices. Tamiko was a good example of the latter. They had attended the same elementary school and the girl seemed to take great joy in blaming him for everything wrong in her life. Lost her favorite toy? Obviously, Hitoshi did it. Failed a test? Well, Hitoshi did it. Caught cheating on her boyfriend? Hitoshi did it.

He sighed heavily as he entered his house catching the sound of his mother humming in the kitchen. He took off his shoes and made his way into the room plopping himself down at the kitchen table. His mother jerked at the noise and spun around.

"Hitoshi! Honestly, don't scare me like that!" Her hands immediately went to her hips. "You're supposed to be at scho-oh my! Who did that?"

She was on him in a moment gentle hands cupping his face and tilting his chin up so she could get a better look at the bruise now taking up half of his face.

"Oh, honey…it was that Minami girl again wasn't it? Minami Tamiko? Let me see the nurse's note."

Hitoshi handed it to her without a fuss and watched silently as her eyes ghosted over the words and her face fell into a frown. He knew what was coming before his mother opened his mouth.

"Hitoshi, did you use your quirk on your classmate again?"

 _'I have never once done that and you'd know it if you weren't so suspicious of my power.'_ He thought to himself but knew better than to voice it.

"No." He replied instead, ignoring the hesitation and suspicion on his mother's face.

It was expected really. Hitoshi learned early on that when someone claimed he used his power on them it was their word against his. And who in their right mind would believe the boy who could brainwash people over the crying 'victim'?

His mother seemed to catch his thoughts and forced a smile to her face, though looked more sad than supportive like she probably intended it to be. "Regardless, she shouldn't have hit you that hard. I'll call the school to see…"

"Don't bother." He replied standing up and meandering over to the fridge to pull out one of the many ice packs they had to hold against his throbbing face. "They won't do anything. They won't believe me either, even though I haven't even talked to anyone at school in weeks, much less talked to her specifically."

He left his mother frowning in the kitchen and trudged up the stairs to his room. He had homework to complete, but he didn't feel like doing it. Instead, he popped a couple of pain pills and laid down to sleep. He woke up briefly to raised voices downstairs but didn't feel like investigating so he rolled over and went back to sleep after tossing the now warm ice pack across the room.

His mother shook him awake what felt like a few minute later, though judging by the crust on his eyes it had been longer than that.

"Hitoshi, sweetheart, wake up. Your father and I want to talk to you about something." His mother murmured as she shook his shoulder softly.

"Hm." He replied scrubbing at his face as he sat up and wincing when he touched his bruise.

"I'll give you a few minute to wake up." His mother continued hesitating briefly before running her hand through his messy hair. "We'll be downstairs. I made your favorite, tonkatsu."

He sat there a few minutes waiting for his mind to catch up before he slowly stood and made his way to the bathroom. Once he used the restroom and splashed some water on his face he made his way downstairs hesitating briefly when he saw his parents at the dining room table with their heads together whispering. His cat, Mei-chan, choose that moment to accost him winding her way between his legs. He picked her up as and took a step into the room while scratching her behind the ears as she purred into his shoulder.

"Ah, Hitoshi!" When she noticed him and she jumped up to usher him to his seat and fuss over his now blackened eye. "Honestly, that girl it too much. She should know better than to hit people willy-nilly with that quirk of hers. You're going to have a bruise for weeks! It's a miracle she didn't break anything!"

Mei-chan jumped from his arms and to the floor where she sat and started to clean herself, ignoring the way she planted herself right his mother's way forcing her to awkwardly step over Mei-chan as she went to sit in her own seat. He smirked briefly at his cat before wincing at the pain and settling for a neutral expression. He picked up his utensils and glanced over at his father, who hadn't said anything yet.

He was looking at Hitoshi intently. Hitoshi looked back at his food and took a bite after his mother gestured for him to start. Their places were empty. He assumed that they had already eaten and wondered what time it was exactly. He should have looked at the clock before coming down.

"Hitoshi." His dad rumbled quietly. Despite his amplifying quirk, he was a fairly quiet man who rarely ever raised his voice, much less used his quirk outside of watching his favorite sports teams lose horribly. "Son, we wanted to talk to you about something that we've been considering for a while now."

Hitoshi glanced between them. "What?"

After a faint hesitation, his mother replied. "We've been considering moving."

He blinked. That was not what he was expecting. "Where? Why?"

This time his father replied tensely. "Well we've considered a number of places, but we're thinking seriously moving to an area over on the east end of Musutafu, closer to the ocean."

"So, not out of the city? But, still why?" He didn't understand why this was suddenly an issue. They had lived in this apartment since before he was born. Their neighborhood was a little ways north of the city in a quiet community. His mother always said she liked being further away from the bustle of the inner city.

His parent looked at one another briefly between turning to him again.

"Well, honey," His mother started. "You've always had a bit of trouble making friends since you got your quirk, but recently you've been coming home more and more with notes from your teacher's or even bruises like today. Your grades have fallen quite a bit since elementary school and you don't seem to have any friends at all. We thought, well, we thought that you can start over at a different school in a different neighborhood that doesn't know and won't judge you so harshly for your quirk."

"You mother and I have looked into the area," His father continued. "And it seems very nice. We'd be able to get an apartment about the same size as this one and there is a nice floral shop for your mother can work at and I won't even have to change jobs since we'll still be in the city."

"Ah." He replied and took another bite of his food.

His parents looked at each other again.

"W-what do you think, Hitoshi?" His mother asked softly.

"Does it matter?" He glanced between them. "You guys have obviously already decided."

He pushed his still half full plate away from him and stood up. "Thanks for dinner mom. I'm going to bed."

Despite what he said he couldn't manage to fall back asleep even after changing into some comfy pajamas and laying down for hours.

He sighed and rolled out of bed and ambled over to his computer desk. He flipped open his laptop and immediately went through his collection of videos of a certain hero. His father, an avid hero admirer-or fanboy as his mother liked to tease- had introduced him to this hero after noticing how upset Hitoshi was over having his power and the reaction his quirk got from other people.

" _In this day and age, a quirk that cancels out other people's quirks is a scary thought. Eraserhead got a lot of crap at the beginning of his career and I remember reading about several heroes refusing to work with him. But that never stopped him and he's still a pro hero, one of the best, today."_

He watched the shaky video of the hero swinging into the middle of a group of villains and taking them out, his hair flying up and his scarf lashing out as quick as lightning. The person filming muttered his awe as he tried to get a better view, but ultimately had to stay out of the way of the fight. Unlike most heroes Eraserhead didn't like media coverage and finding clips of him fighting was difficult, but Hitoshi managed. He had saved and download multiple videos like this. He watched and rewatched them for hours when he couldn't sleep and didn't want to do anything that would wake him up further. He wasn't sure when exactly he fell asleep, but he vaguely remembered seeing the sunrise peak through his shades before he lost consciousness at his desk.

Hitoshi didn't want to go to school when he woke up again a couple of hours later and his mother didn't make him. Instead, she pulled him into her apartment search and had him writing down the information for the ones she saw online that she wanted to visit.

He went to school the next day, ignoring the snide comments and laughter at his face not even bothering to spare a glare at Tamiko. When he got home his mother refused to let him head to his room and instead pulled him more into their moving plans. That weekend he was dragged into visiting some of the houses for sale and driving around their future neighborhood. Before he knew it a couple of months passed in a similar manner until they finally decided on a place and began their move when he got out of school for summer vacation. Finally, on the Monday of the last day of summer vacation, he found himself moving all of this stuff into their new apartment.

Their new neighbor, Midoriya Inko, greeted them enthusiastically apologizing repeatedly for her son being absent. Apparently, he was out trying to catch a glimpse of a hero battle in downtown. Hitoshi didn't care much despite his mother insisting that they'd get a chance to meet when the boy got home.

He didn't meet the boy, though not for his parent's lack of trying. He simply hid in his room claiming he was unpacking while he browsed the internet.

He barely left his room for the rest of the summer break. After a couple of days, his parents gave up trying to convince him to explore the neighborhood and meet kids his age. He supposed he lucked out that their neighbors' kid didn't seem to be a socialite either and only came over once when his mother dragged him over to introduce him. Hitoshi watched from his cracked door as the kid shuffled and fluttered his hands anxiously as his mother chatted with Hitoshi's own mother.

It wasn't until the new semester began a week later that his mother managed dragged him out of his room.

He trudged to school slowly in his new uniform. He wasn't sure what he felt about attending a new school. On one hand, no one wouldn't know about his quirk. On the other, since they didn't know they'd probably bug him since he was the new kid.

He just wanted to be left alone.

He had made it into the school and was just about to enter the building when he heard a shout.

"Kacchan, no!"

He blinked slowly as a pile of stuff suddenly landed on him. A few notebooks, pencils, pens, and then the entire backpack landed on his head. He sighed and pulled the yellow bag off of his head, ignoring the panicked voice apologizing repeatedly above him. He supposed he was lucky that the textbook lying at his feet didn't clip him.

He was just picking up the stuff when the sound of pounding feet made him look up.

"I'm so sorry!" The boy in front of him panted, apparently having just run down at least one flight of stairs to grab his stuff. "Kacchan was teasing me and you got caught in the middle and now the bells going to ring. Wait? Are you new? You couldn't be my new neighbor-"

The bell rang interrupting the boy. Hitoshi sighed and handed the backpack to the boy and made his way to the office leaving the other boy to run back up to his classroom when he realized Hitoshi left. He almost sighed again when he spotted the boy in his new classroom when he was introducing himself and held back another when he was directed to a seat next to the green haired boy.

The boy leaned over and held out his hand as he whispered. "Hello, my name is Midoriya Izuku."

He finally sighed, but still took the boys hand for a weak handshake. "Shinsou Hitoshi."

Midoriya gave him a smile that could rival the sun.

"Nice to meet you Shinsou. Welcome to Orudera Junoir High."

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 **New season and new favorite character. Lol, seriously the idea just came to me during their battle and bugged me till I wrote** **something down.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Nah, I'm just a poor college student. I'd be richer if I owned MHA.**

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Izuku hadn't been there when the Shinsou family first arrived in their neighborhood. He had been out all day trailing after a Desutegoro in his fight against a group of bank robbers. Once that fight ended he had spent several more hours chasing after rumors of an All Might sighting which he found to be false, much to his disappointment. He trudged home near dusk exhausted but happy enough that he managed to take so many notes about Desutegoro and the villains he had been fighting.

His mother had dragged him over to the apartment next door the very next day practically vibrating with the hope that the new neighbor boy might be Izuku's friend.

He didn't get to meet their son, but he did like the elder Shinsou's. Shinsou Aiko was a beautiful woman with long blue hair that had small white flowers tangled in it and bright bluish purple eyes. She was slender and dainty and definitely resembled the flowers she could control with her quirk. He had made a fool of himself blabbering about her quirk and how useful and interesting it was, but she luckily didn't take offense. Her husband even laughed and ruffled his hair when he started apologizing once he realized what he had done. He was a mammoth of a man, towering over all of them at 6'4''. Izuku would have never pegged him as a salaryman if he hadn't specifically told them so. He certainly didn't have the look of one and he spoke very gently, his cocoa eyes warm when he chatted with Izuku's mother. He had a warm laugh that echoed slightly from his quirk. Izuku liked them and almost looked forward to meeting their son. But, he never did.

Until today.

Izuku cast a side glance at the boy sitting next to him.

He must have inherited his father's height since he was taller than the rest of the class, but everything else was definitely his mother from the blue-purple hair and eyes to the pale skin and delicate hands. Though his hair was wilder that Kacchans and he had some pretty deep bags under his eyes.

Izuku wondered if he inherited his mother's quirk as well.

Then again, he glanced around the class. Most of the students were looking at Shinsou rather than paying attention. They whispered behind their hands and tried to catch the boy's attention to no avail. Even Kacchan was eyeing the new kid with a narrowed eyed look. He probably wouldn't get the chance to talk to him during school.

He turned back to his notebook tinkering with the different combination of quirks from parents. He had never put much thought in it before since he focused heavily on hero quirks, but if he thought about it certain quirks tend to be passed down from parent to child because they were tied intrinsically into a person's DNA; their genetics. Like genetics, there were endless possibilities tied to either side of the family including recessive traits that could crop up under certain circumstances. Now that he thought of it there was a large possibility that his own quirklessness was a byproduct of a recessive trait from his parents. Or maybe it was a genetic mutation? That was another possibility that didn't necessarily follow the parent's genetics. Maybe-

The eraser hit him right between the eyes. A result of repeated practice.

"Shut-up Midoriya, you're freaking out the new guy." His teacher scowled at him, while the rest of the class snickered.

Izuku cringed slightly and glanced to his right. Shinsou didn't look very freaked out, but it was hard to tell since the boy looked perpetually on the verge of falling asleep. His neighbor simply raised an eyebrow at him before turning back to the front of the class. He ducked his head and mumbled an apology. As the class continued, he tried to keep his thoughts in his head. It was difficult and his bottom lip hurt from biting it so hard, but he managed not to lose himself again in his own thoughts.

He hoped Shinsou wouldn't think he was super weird and wouldn't talk to him now.

The day seemed to drag on slower than normal, however, lunch eventually came. As he pulled out his bento he turned to try and see if he could talk to Shinsou some more only to find a large group already forming around the boy. Kacchan had plopped himself down at the desk in front of Shinsou sitting backward in the chair with his arms folded loosely over the back. Izuku glanced around for the original occupant and found the boy cowering in the corner glaring spitefully at Kacchan.

"So, what's your quirk?" Kaccchan got right down to business. "Everyone else says it when they introduce themselves, but you didn't. So, what is it?"

Izuku winced slightly. Apparently, Kacchan was feeling a bit territorial.

Shinsou didn't seem to pick up on Kacchan's hostility or simply ignored it since he merely raised his eyebrow at the blond and turned back to his own bento. Despite his sudden spike in fear over what Kacchan might do to the boy after the blatant dismissal he could help but notice the faint twitch of his right eye and the way his shoulders slouched slightly.

Kacchan stole his attention with a small explosion.

"I was talking to you." The blond growled, his sparking hand held up threateningly.

Shinsou's expression didn't change as he glanced back up at Kacchan.

"My quirk is none of your business."

"Kacchan, don't!" He leaped to his feet pushing Kacchan's shoulders back in a vain attempt to stop the other boy from lunging forward to attack Shinsou.

Kacchan's face was twisted angrily until his eyes landed on Izuku and suddenly he was leaning against the desk and smirking. Izuku stepped back in confusion, his hands still raised.

"So, are you like Deku then? A shitty, quirkless loser?"

Izuku winced.

Well, there went his chance of making friends with Shinsou. He knew it would come up eventually, but he didn't want to advertise it immediately. Judging by Kacchan's smirk he knew exactly what Izuku was thinking. Shinsou blinked slowly at him for a moment, before turning back to Kacchan.

"No, I'm not quirkless."

"Then what is your shitty quirk?" Kacchan's smirk fell into another scowl. Izuku could tell Shinsou's blank expression was irritating him immensely. "It must be shitty if you refused to fucking tell."

"Come on, it can't be too bad." One of Izuku's classmates spoke up. "The only one with a good quirk in this school is Bakugou."

"It's none of your business," Shinsou repeated before turning back to his food.

Kacchan's friends dragged him away to prevent a full-blown fight, but even after he was gone Shinsou refused to answer any other questions from curious classmates. Izuku opened and closed his mouth a few times, before sitting back down and eating his own food. The rest of school seemed to go by much faster as Izuku stared miserably at the teacher only barely paying attention.

When the bell rang he slowly put his things away keeping an eye on Kacchan as the boy stormed out of the room with his friends trailing behind as usual. Normally he'd tag along with them or go out looking for a hero fight to watch, but today he just wanted to go home.

"Hey."

Izuku jerked his head up and stared wide-eyed at Shinsou. The boy scratched the back of his head and looked to the side before turning back to him.

"Is true you don't have a quirk?"

Izuku winced and looked down at his shoes. "Y-yeah."

"Huh."

Izuku didn't look when he heard Shinsou walk away. He could feel the blood rushing to his face in a shameful blush.

"Hey, Midoriya was it? Are you coming?"

His head jerked up for the second time. Shinsou was standing a little awkwardly at the door to the classroom. The other students still hanging around were whispering to one another eyeing the exchange with interest. Shinsou shuffled his feet.

"We live next door, so I thought…"

That seemed to kick-start his brain.

"Right! Live next door. So we go home the same way! Um. Right, I'm definitely coming!" Izuku wasn't sure how much of that babbled response was understandable, but Shinsou didn't seem irritated like Kacchan was when Izuku got too excited so he figured the boy either understood or was simply ignoring it.

He shoved the rest of his stuff in his backpack and charged towards the door with a wide grin, nearly running into Shinsou in his haste.

"Walking isn't that exciting," Shinsou muttered.

"But, I've never walked home with anyone before." He chirped back. He used to follow Kacchan home, but then Kacchan started taking a different route and no one else lived near him.

"Huh. Why?"

Izuku's shifted his gaze to the side. As soon as people found out about his quirklessness they tended to avoid him.

"Why would they avoid you? It's not like you can do anything horrible to them."

He froze. Did he say that out loud?

"Yeah." Shinsou lips twitch up in a tiny smirk.

He looked down at his shoes. While he was happy Shinsou didn't seem to care about him being quirkless, there was something to his response that seemed off. Izuku didn't know what it was, but the way he said 'horrible'…He shrugged it off for the time being and tried to think of what to talk about on their way home. As they walked Izuku considered asking him about his quirk, but decided against it. Instead, he started chatting nervously about heroes.

"…and there is still debate on whether Snipe has extremely good aim separate from his quirk or because of his quirk. In any case, I think he's kind of underrated. He gets a bit of a bad rep for using guns when so many other superheroes just use their quirk, but some of their quirks are just as dangerous and regardless of whether he's just good at aiming or uses his homing quirk, he's never seriously injured someone. Which not all heroes can actually claim, I mean there was that incident with Endeaver last spring. Even if that guy was a villain those burns were pretty severe…and where was I?"

He blinked and turned to Shinsou, who had been silent throughout his whole ramble.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I've just been babbling away. I just, well I sometimes get carried away talking about heroes. Oh gosh, you probably think I'm lame now." Izuku kicked a stray pebble. If Shinsou wasn't scared away by his quirklessness than his nerdiness (as Kacchan call it) would definitely do the trick.

"No, it's fine." There was a hint of amusement in his voice. "My dad's obsessed with heroes too. He tends to go on long rants whenever there's a big fight on tv. For warning, if you hear shouting in the future it's probably him upset over how a hero was handling a situation. He's a major backseat hero."

He blinked slowly at the boy. "Wow, that's the most you've said today."

"Ah…"

Shinsou turned away and scratched the back of his head a little harshly. If Izuku tilted his head he could see a blush stretching to his ears. He felt a small grin tug at his own lips. He glanced down the road. They were almost home. He could see the apartment building in the distance.

"Uh, well, anyway. So, your dad likes heroes. Um, who's your favorite hero?"

Shinsou glanced at him before shrugging. "Eraserhead."

"Ohh he's an awesome hero! Not much is known about him since he doesn't like the publicity but his quirk is super cool and he takes care of a lot of the small time villains that most big-time heroes don't bother with 'cause there's not much fame involved. There was some debate on how he's a borderline vigilante due to some of his rescues, the way he sometimes doesn't wait for permission to enter certain situations and his dislike of the media-"

"That's stupid. It's probably just a rumor from some of the journalists he refused to give an interview to. Or maybe some of the heroes who refused to work with him because of his quirk." Shinsou butted in looking more engaged than Izuku had seen him yet.

He grinned and nodded fiercely.

"That's right! He got his hero license fair and square and he helps a whole bunch of people even if he's not as showy as some of the other heroes. Did you know that he works at U.A.? I would love to have him as a teacher!"

Shinsou gave a small nod and Izuku's grin widened.

"Do you want to be a hero too? I want to be a hero." He hesitated slightly, waiting for the usual rebuttal.

But, it never came.

"Yeah…I want to be a hero." Shinsou replied looking away again.

It looked like he was going to say more, but he hesitated as well. They descended into silence for a few minutes.

"Well, we're back home." They stopped in front of Shinsou's door.

Izuku fidgeted a moment, wondering how exactly break off the conversation. He never did this before. Should he just say bye and walk away. Or maybe he should invite him over. But he might be tired since it was his first day and he had to deal with that confrontation with Kacchan. Also, he might not actually want to hang out with Izuku outside of school and walking home. Maybe he was just humoring him by walking home with him. Some people did sometimes pity him and treated him like he was invalid when they learned that he was quirkless.

"Hey, it's nothing like that." Shinsou waved his hand in front of his face jerking Izuku out of his thoughts. "You don't have much of a brain to mouth filter do you?"

Izuku blushed and shuffled his feet. "Sorry."

"It's fine." Shinsou glanced at his house. "Uh, you like heroes…do you want to see my dad's collection?"

"Collection?" He asked slowly his mind trying to catch up with this turn of events.

"Yeah, he has a lot of hero stuff. Figurines, posters and other merchandise. Apparently, some of it is really rare. He's got one of the first All Might figurines that was sold, there's only-"

"Fifteen!" Izuku shouted excitedly. "There's only fifteen! He has one?! That's amazing let me tell my mom where I'm at and I'll come right over!"

Shinsou's lips twitched slightly. "Alright."

They spent several hours ogling Mr. Shinsou's collect and Shinsou's own folder of hard to find videos of Eraserhead with frequent interruptions from Ms. Shinsou who seemed almost as ecstatic as his mother was when he told her he was going over to the Shinsou household. When Mr. Shinsou got home Izuku had the most engaging conversation about heroes and their quirks than he ever had with anyone else.

He awkwardly turned down a dinner invitation and nearly skipped back to his home, only to be accosted by his teary-eyed mother who wanted to know absolutely everything about his visit, gushing on and on about how she was so happy her little Izuku made a friend.

He wasn't sure if that was true, but he didn't correct her. After all, he wasn't quite sure what a friend was if he was being completely honest with himself. He had thought that Kacchan was his friend when they were kids, but things had changed drastically since then. Ever since his quirklessness became known by the kids in his class no one his age really talked to him outside of mocking or pitying him.

Maybe…

Maybe his mom was right and they could be friends. Even if he didn't quite know what that entailed, he hoped he got to talk to Shinsou more.

The next morning he found Shinsou standing awkwardly in front of his door looking like he had been preparing to knock. Izuku stared. Shinsou looked away scratching at the back of his head muttering something about his mother insisting that they walk to school together since they lived next door. Izuku didn't pay much attention to it, he was just too ecstatic that Shinsou didn't change his mind about talking to him during the night.

Before he knew it a week went by in a similar manner. Shinsou and him would walk to and from school chatting about anything that caught their interest. Or, at least, Izuku would chat and Shinsou would listen. Izuku tried multiple times to get him to talk more, but the other boy didn't seem to be much of a talker.

Izuku should have known things would end badly.

He should have noticed Kacchan's frown getting deeper and his glare sharper.

But, he was so excited to have a potential friend that he remained oblivious.

That was until Kacchan was in Shinsou's face again after class Monday afternoon. Kacchan and his friends had caught them on their way home under an overpass.

"I was right, wasn't I? You're just another quirkless little shit. That's why you're hanging out with Deku, eh?" The hand holding onto the front of Shinou's uniform was steaming. "Two shitty birds flocking together."

Izuku wasn't sure how he managed it, but Shinsou's face was as blank as ever.

"You're wrong."

Kacchan growled.

"Kacchan no!" Izuku shot up tugging at the arm that was now sparking. It was a miracle Shinsou's uniform hadn't caught fire yet.

"Fuck off Deku!" Kacchan snapped his other hand jerked out sending him flying with a small explosion.

He was used to this, though, and merely raised his arms to block his face and tried his best not to trip over his feet and fall. He hit the wall pretty hard and his vision blurred for a second, but it wasn't as bad as some of his fights with Kacchan ended up. He lowered his hands down ready to charge in again. Kacchan saw him coming, however, and let off another explosion sending him flying back on his butt.

"You know what? Fine. You want to know my quirk?"

Izuku sat up blinking away stars. Something was wrong. Shinsou's voice was soft, lacking any anger that one would expect him to have in this situation. Focusing on his face, Izuku noticed the resigned expression. Warning bells went off in his head.

Of course, Kacchan being Kacchan didn't notice any of this.

"Yea-" His voice cut off with a choke.

Izuku's eye's widened as he watched Kacchan's face went blank. His hands dropped and the explosions sparking at his fingertips faded.

"Bakugou?" One of his friends asked cautiously.

The vacant smile on his face was freaking everyone out.

Everyone except for Shinsou.

"Go home Bakugou." He ordered calmly. "Don't talk to or mess with anyone on your way home."

Without a word Kacchan marched away, his movements awkwardly stiff.

"What the hell did you do to him?!" Kacchan's friend exclaimed his fingers stretching out like he was going to strike at Shinsou, but he flinched back when Shinsou looked at him.

"He wanted to know my quirk. I showed him." Shinsou replied blandly. "My quirk is brainwashing."

The two glanced at each other with wide eyes before backing away slowly and running. Izuku shook his head. They pretended to be tough when Kacchan was around, but apparently, they weren't so brave on their own. He turned to Shinsou with a smile, but he was already picking up his bag and walking away.

"Hey! Wait up!" He hopped to his feet wincing as his vision blurred again. Maybe he hit his head a harder than he thought on the wall. He blinked away the spots and chased after the purple haired boy. "That was so cool! I had no idea that kind of quirk was even a thing!"

Shinsou slowed to a halt but didn't turn towards him.

"You're not scared of me? Of what I can do?"

Izuku tilted his head to the side in confusion. "What? No way, why would I be?"

Shinsou turned slowly his eyebrows pulled together as he frowned at him.

"I can control your mind just by asking you a question…"

Izuku grinned. "So it's activated verbally? I thought it might be based on eye contact. So is it a specific question or maybe it's the inflection of your voice? Kacchan started to answer before his face went blank is there some kind of delay? Ooh, it's so cool. Much cooler than Kacchan's explosions! I bet you'd make an awesome hero. You'd have the villains behind bars before they knew what hit them! And-"

He paused when he noticed Shinsou's shoulders shaking. He had wrapped his arms around himself and his head was lowered as his shoulders shook minutely. Izuku waved his hands around in distress.

Was he crying?! Did he say something bad? He let his mouth get away from him again, didn't he?

"Shinsou?" He asked hesitantly.

Shinsou's shoulders shook some more and he let out a snort.

Izuku blinked.

Apparently, the snort opened all of the floodgates because suddenly Shinsou was laughing helplessly as Izuku stood there awkwardly wondering what he said that was so funny. He hadn't seen him laugh before, then again he had only known him for a week. After a minute Shinsou calmed down, taking deep breaths to get his heart rate back to normal.

"Hey, just call me Hitoshi."

Izuku blinked twice before a grin made its way across his face.

"Ok! Call me Izuku then!"

 _Was this what a friend was like?_

Because he definitely wanted to hold onto the bubbly feeling rising in his chest.

* * *

 **Can we talk about how hard it is to write awkward dialogue? Cause it was really difficult to write these dorky, awkward boys.**

 **Also, "Kacchan no!", is Izuku's catchphrase. No one can tell me otherwise.**

 **Anyway, thank you guys for the reviews and support. This was just a little brainchild from season two that I thought might be interesting to post and see what people thought of it.**


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